Hanukkah with the Viper pt. 7

You’ve had a lot of latke so far this week (see the posts for December 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26). But by now you’re asking: where are the recordings of the Paint Branch Ramblers playing “Heyse Latke Kalte Latke” in rehearsal?

Okay, so maybe you aren’t asking. But it’s the 7th night of Hanukkah and, as you know, the quality of the gifts gets a little thin about this time.

And in that tradition, I present you our rehearsal from November 28, 2008.

In some ways, I like this better than the live recording – the sound quality is better, for one thing, because we’re all just standing around a single microphone rather than going through a P.A. system. By all I mean: me, cumbus; Peter Jensen, violin; Mike Paul and Bob Smith, our one-syllable-named guitarists; and Susan Johnson, autoharp and washboard.

I also like the tempo, and my cumbus tag is a little cleaner. You’ll notice we only play through “Jerusalem Ridge” once – that’s sometimes how we do it.